Army on Tuesday launched a separate probe into the bloody mutiny in Bangladesh Rifles as new evidence has heightened suspicions of "outsiders" involvement in the massacre of army officers.
Announcing the new probe, army's chief of General Staff Lt Gen Sinha Ibne Jamali said army's probe would be independent of the investigations launched by the government.
The army probe, which is a statuary requirement as large number of army officers were killed, would be headed by the Quartermaster General Lt Gen Mohammad Jahangir Alam Choudhury.
"Bangladesh Army's Quartermaster General Lieutenant General Mohammad Jahangir Alam Choudhury has started the probe into the BDR mutiny in Pilkhana headquarters from today," army said in a press briefing. The government has reconstituted a high-powered probe into the mutiny by replacing Home Minister Sahara Khatun with a retired top bureaucrat and has co-opted three more members including a senior army officer.
Briefing reporters, Lt Gen Jamali said the army's seven-member probe would be strengthened if necessary and FBI and Scotland Yard, who helped had been sought by the government, would help its probe.
The developments came as security officials familiar with the investigation said seizure of various firearms and hardware indicated that people other than the BDR rebels could be involved in the massacre.
The Daily Star and several other newspapers said some members of the BDR Rifles Security Unit (RSU) were also involved in the carnage.
"Particularly the two binoculars, and mechinegun holding belts seized along with the grenades, firearms and ammunitions recovered from the scene, are not used by BDR or army," a security official said, adding "other parties" imported them inside the BDR headquarters to be used during the mutiny. The army and fire service rescuers yesterday dug out huge ashes from a hole near the BDR Darbar Hall, the scene of the carnage, suspecting it to be another mass grave.
"But this huge quantity of ashes hidden into the hole confused us, investigators will probe if the culprits burned something important and later hid these in the hole," an official said.
Police on Monday said they started gathering the evidence of the massacre during the two days of mutiny as a case was lodged against 1,000 rebel soldiers naming six of them as ring leaders of the massacre.